


Look I Made a Hat

by marvelousmsmol



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrinette | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, F/M, Post-Episode: s03 Miracle Queen (The Battle of the Miraculous Part 2)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:34:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24185212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marvelousmsmol/pseuds/marvelousmsmol
Summary: Marinette contemplates what it takes to finish a hat.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 8
Kudos: 85





	Look I Made a Hat

**Author's Note:**

> And when the one man that you wanted goes  
> You can say to yourself, "Well, I give what I give"  
> But the one man who won't wait for you knows  
> That, however you live  
> There's a part of you always standing by  
> Mapping out the sky, finishing a hat  
> Starting on a hat, finishing a hat  
> Look, I made a hat  
> Where there never was a hat

Ladybug, that’s who she was now, not just in name, but in the sense that it was the one part of her identity she had left. She was always Marinette, but when the mask was on everyone saw a superhero and not a girl, like that was made irrelevant by a spandex suit and a yo-yo. What mattered instead was what she was willing to do for others, the things that could be praised and exalted. No one would put up a statue for her because she could pass a math test or be able to talk to the boy she liked without stumbling over her words. Those things had to be forgotten when she was Ladybug, because it didn’t matter what her GPA was when someone else life was in her hands. 

Maybe there had been one person who hadn’t been completely blinded by the front putting on the suit gave her. Being in the same boat often meant you shared perspective. While the rest of Paris looked up at them, they looked out from the same level as the horizon. She and Chat Noir had always been standing next to one another looking at the same view, but that might have been the problem. Now, there was apparently just Ladybug to him, too. No  _ my lady, _ not even  _ bugaboo _ , he had just called her Ladybug. The difference made all the difference because it came from the one person she thought would notice the girl.

Right now, Marinette was just the girl, being passed by by everyone else as she sat on a bench in the park. Her eyes were trained, her lip caught between her teeth in concentration, as her fingers moved with practiced ease, embroidering flowers on the stiff felt fabric of her cloche hat. The embroidery was an excuse not to be bothered by anyone else. For the first time in many days, she had a moment to herself to consider the things that had changed. 

At this moment, she wouldn’t be surprised if you could see a dark cloud sitting over her, it would certainly explain the pressure that was weighing down on her shoulders. She couldn’t quite tell if the pressure was different or if it was just heavier. 

“Marinette.” She recognized Adrien’s voice. He was standing next to her and took one hand out of the pockets of his pants to motion to the empty space beside her. “Do you mind if I join you?”

Marinette scooted over a little, shuffling her work bag to the other side of her body. “What are you doing here?”

“They’re setting up a photoshoot,” Adrien said. “I had a little time and I saw you sitting here, so I thought I should come say hello.”

“You didn’t have to,” Marinette said.

“Yes,” Adrien said. “But, I wanted to.”

Adrien leaned back in his seat, his head tilted up towards the sky. Rolling his head to the side, Adrien glanced down watching her work. Marinette could feel his eyes on her, and looked over at him occasionally as they sat together in silence. 

“You must find this boring,” Marinette said. “Sorry, I can’t entertain you more.”   


“It’s not boring. I don’t mind it at all,” Adrien answered, shaking his head. “I find it intriguing, actually, watching you work.”

“Alya can’t stand to sit and wait for me to finish something,” Marinette said. “She likes to praise the finished product, and tells me that I must have worked hard on it, but she never sees the work that actually goes into all of it.”  
Marinette finished off another flower with a violet-colored thread, so close to being done with the design that wrapped all the way around the brim like an artificial flower crown, one that could never wither and die. 

Even though Adrien was sitting here and watching her work now, he still hadn’t seen the half of it. Before she had even start the embroidery, she had cut and shaped the fabric to fit her head perfectly, a process that had taken her hours upon hours and a few attempts. Marinette was still learning, and it was best not to let people who could complement or scorn her look into the actual process of making the hat.

“I don’t think that people actually appreciate the work that goes into this,” Marinette said, putting a golden-colored thread through the eye of her needle. “They admire what’s finished and pretty and as long as that’s what comes out of the work they don’t need to see how the sausage gets made.”

“Perhaps, you need to spend more time showing it to people who understand the process,” Adrien said. “Someone who’s spent their whole life among sewing machines and dress forms-”

“Do you appreciate what I’m doing,” Marinette asked. She didn’t turn to look at him as she asked the question and didn’t see the momentary confusion that flashed in his eyes. 

“I know the work that you put into everything you do,” Adrien said. “You- you have such passion in everything you attempt. Marinette, do you appreciate what you’re doing?”

Marinette’s fingers paused momentarily before once again going through the motions. “I think that because- When you’re always listening to the person who understands if you stand next to them all your life as you work, you won’t get the same criticism as you standing next to someone who doesn’t. Their job is to just look at the beauty of the final product, they don’t have to know how many hours or how much fabric or how much you spent to get to the end, and if I ever want to get to what matters I can’t be with the person who understands the whole of it.”

“But-” Adrien opened his mouth to respond, but a stuttering sound came out as he clearly tried to search for the words to counter. “If you only- if you just listen to the people who only care about what’s been made in the end- It just seems like pretty lonely thinking to me.”

“Well, the beauty, in the end, is what I care about, too,” Marinette said, jabbing the needle through the felt. “So, I don’t want them to see what the process is, because I don’t want them to see what happens when I-”

Marinette grit her teeth and gasped and the needle punctured her skin. She pulled her  hand back quickly, dropping the needle down into her lap. Only a tiny bit of red spread out of the pricked hole onto her finger. She hoped that none of it had stained the inside of the hat. Marinette nodded to her work bag. “Can you get me the band-aids in there please?”

Adrien reached across her lap, careful not to knock anything onto the ground. He pulled open the drawstring bag, rummaging through till he pulled out a decorated tin. Marinette reached for it, but Adrien grabbed onto her hand, tearing open the packaging. Furrowing his brows, Adrien pulled off the tabs covering the adhesive and gently wrapped the band-aid around her finger.

“See,” Adrien said. “If you let people in on the process, then you get help like that.”

The smile on Adrien’s face was enough to make Marinette do the same. She didn’t grin  like he did. The upturned corners of her mouth faltered, falling into what was almost a frown. She looked back down at her lap, picking up the needle once again and starting in on the last little flower. 

“What if-,” Marinette said. “What if the person who watches you make the hat can’t help you look at things the other way though? What if I wanted to go look at other people’s hats and think about how pretty they looked and not have to think about how much time they put into the hat and just admire it because it looks nice? Can they understand that part of it? And- and what if they don’t want to look at hats with me at all, ever? Or, there was someone that I- that I wanted to look at hats with, but they already had someone else to look at hats with them?”

Adrien leaned in slightly, looking at Marinette’s face as though he were trying to decipher some ancient language. “Marinette, we are still talking about hats, right?”

Marinette knotted off the end of the thread and snipped the excess away with her scissors. She stuffed her supplies back into her bag and tied off the drawstring, slipping it around her wrist. 

Holding up the finished product, Marinette eyed it critically. The dark purple felt was contrasted by the brightly colored flowers that adored the brim in shades of violet, blue, and yellow. Her name was stitched on the inside, showing that the design was definitively her own. 

Marinette turned to Adrien, who was looking at it just as she was. A nervous grin appeared on her face. “Do you think it’s pretty?”

“I think… It’s very pretty,” Adrien said, sincerely. “And, I think that you put a lot of great work into it.”

Marinette and Adrien jumped as his name was called from the other side of the park. For a moment, they both looked a little frightened, but both burst out into laughter not long after. 

“I think they’re ready for you,” Marinette said.

“Right,” Adrien said, standing up and letting out a sigh. “I’ll see you at school.”

Marinette said goodbye, softly, and she wasn’t quite sure he had heard her as he turned and walked away to the opposite side of the park. She sat for a moment, hat in her hands, and as she stood from the bench, she slipped it on her head. It fit perfectly. 

The voices shouting behind her grew more distant as she walked away, directing work to make a model pose for a finished product so people could admire a pretty picture. They wouldn’t know how many hours, how many people had worked on the shoot, or who would edit later. They would just get to see the picture. 

Marinette continued down the sidewalk, headed towards home. She looked at her reflection every so often in a window, the thought of what she should have perhaps done differently, or what she might change for next time. 

Stopping on a street corner, Marinette waited for the crossing sign to change. There was  a woman next to her, the two of them standing awkwardly as they waited together. The woman turned her head, pausing for a moment. “Hey,” she said. “That’s a really pretty hat.”

Marinette looked at her and smiled. “Thank you.”

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr: @marvelousmsmol


End file.
